Austria Tourism - Carinthia Tourist Attractions

Carinthia, AustriaCarinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern alps it is chiefly famous for its mountains and lakes.

The people are predominantly German-speaking with a unique Southern Austro-Bavarian dialect typical of which is that all short German vowels before double consonants have been lengthened ("Carinthian Vowel Stretching"). A Slovene-speaking minority of about 13,000 people (2-3%) according to the national census of 2001 is concentrated in the southeast of the country.

Carinthia's main industries are tourism, electronics, engineering, forestry and agriculture. The multinational corporations Philips and Siemens have large operations there.

Carinthia Tourist Attractions and Landmarks

Klagenfurt, Carinthia Tourist Attractions

The Old City with its central Alter Platz and the Renaissance buildings with their charming arcaded courtyards is a major attraction.

The Lindworm Fountain
A Fountain of 1593, with a Hercules added in 1633. s a technical term for a wingless bipedal dragon. It is often shown wingless, with a poisonous bite. In modern Scandinavian languages, the cognate lindorm can refer to any 'serpent' or monstrous snake, but in Norwegian heraldry, it is also a technical term for a 'seaserpent', although it may also stand for a 'lindworm' in British heraldry.

Landhaus
Palace of the Estates, now the seat of the State Assembly.

Baroque Cathedral
Built by the then Protestant Estates of Carinthia.

Viktring Abbey / Stift Viktring
A Cistercian monastery near Klagenfurt in Carinthia, Austria. Stift Viktring is now the name of the present Roman Catholic parish in the Viktring district of Klagenfurt.

Hypo-Arena
Formerly known as Wörthersee Stadion.ogg Wörtherseestadion is a multi-use stadium in Klagenfurt, Austria. The old stadium, known as the Wörtherseestadion, was built in 1960 and had a capacity of 10,900. It was demolished in 2005 and replaced by the new Hypo-Arena, also known until 30 June 2007 by the name "Wörtherseestadion".

Minimundus
A miniature park on the Wörthersee at Klagenfurt in Carinthia, Austria. It displays around 150 miniature models of architecture from around the world, built at a ratio of 1:25. Since its opening in 1958, more than 15 million visitors have visited the 26,000 square meters park. The proceeds benefit the children's help organization Rettet das Kind ("Save the Child"), which owns the park.

Kreuzbergl Nature Park
A viewing tower and observatory, a small but attractive botanical garden at the foot of Kreuzbergl, with a mining museum attached.

Wörthersee / Lake Worth
An alpine lake in the southern Austrian province of Carinthia. The lake is elongated, about 20 km long and 1–2 km wide. It stretches from the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt in the east to Velden in the west. It is flanked to the north and south by steep alpine foothills covered with dense forests, beyond which snow-capped alpine peaks are visible. The lake's water is a distinctive blue-green colour and transparent.

Maria Loretto Peninsula
A newly renovated stately home, until recently in the possession of one of Carinthia's noble families, the Rosenbergs, but acquired lately by the City.

Tentschach & Hallegg Castles

Lindworm Fountain

The Landhaus

Hypo-Arena

Stift Viktring

Minimundus

Loretto

Wörthersee

Villach, Carinthia Tourist Attractions

Villach Festivals and Events The Carnival in Villach, which starts on November 11 and ends on March 4. The Arts and Crafts Festival, with self made goods. The New Orleans Festival The Streets-Art Festival, displays performances of artists and singers The "Villacher Kirchtag", a kermis spanning a whole week in summer and ends on August's first Saturday with a notorious fireworks show, a performances on a stage beside the Drau.

Villach Carnival

St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal / Stift Sankt Paul
A Benedictine monastery in the village of Sankt Paul im Lavanttal in the Austrian state of Carinthia. The abbey was founded in 1091 by the Spanheim Dukes of Carinthia on the site of their ancestral castle.

In 1787 Emperor Joseph II dissolved it, but in 1809, under the Prince-Abbot Dr. Berthold Rottler, monks from St. Blaise's Abbey in the Black Forest, which had also just been dissolved, moved into the premises. In 1940 the abbey was dissolved again by the National Socialists but the monks were able to return when it was reopened in 1947. Today it is the oldest operational monastery in Carinthia.

From 1641 the abbey was a member of the Salzburg Congregation, which in 1930 was merged into the present Austrian Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation.

Gurk Cathedral
An Austrian basilica in Gurk, Carinthia, that was built in the high romanesque style from 1140 to 1200. It is considered to be one of the most important romanesque church buildings in Europe. The long building has a western façade with two towers, a gallery, a crypt, and three apses. The crypt, with its 100 columns, is the oldest part of the cathedral. In 1174, the grave of Saint Hemma of Gurk was relocated there. In the middle of the rural Gurktal, the imposing 60 meter tall twin towers of the cathedral can be seen from very far off.

Hochosterwitz Castle / Burg Hochosterwitz
Considered to be one of Austria's most impressive medieval castles. It is situated on a 160 m (525 ft) Dolomite rock near Sankt Georgen am Längsee, east of the town of Sankt Veit an der Glan in Carinthia. The castle can be seen from about 30 km away on a clear day.

Lake Ossiach / Ossiacher See
A lake in the Austrian state of Carinthia, situated in the Nock Mountains between the towns of Villach and Feldkirchen. It is the third largest lake in Carinthia, superseded only by Lake Wörth and Lake Millstatt. Lake Ossiach is a dimictic lake with mixing periods in spring and in late autumn. In summer the waters reach 24°C.

Faaker See or Lake Faak
An alpine lake in the Austrian state of Carinthia. With a surface of approximately 2.2 km² it is the state's fifth largest lake. Faaker See is a popular vacation and bathing destination, known for its clear turquoise water. Fishing, especially for whitefish is also quite popular.

It is located south of Villach and the Drava river at the northern slope of the Karawanken mountain range. The settlements of Drobollach and Egg on the northern shore belong to the City of Villach. The village of Faak in the southwest, after which the lake is named, is part of the Finkenstein municipality.

Millstätter See / Lake Millstatt
Located in the Central Eastern Alps, near the town of Spittal an der Drau. With a surface area of 13.3 km² (5.1 sq mi) it is the second largest lake of Carinthia (after Lake Wörth), though with 142 m (466 ft) by far the deepest and most voluminous. Its steep shore gives the lake a fjord-like character.

Nassfeld / Hermagor
A ski-resort in Austrian, Carinthia, district Hermagor. It contains over 220 snow machines for creating artificial snow, 110 km of ski tracks and 30 ski lifts. The cable car lift called Millennium-Express takes you up to the top (1.919 meters) in less than 15 minutes- The ski resort ranges on elevation from 1300 meters to 2000 meters above sea level. It is a good destination also for mountain hiking and offers more than 1000 km of hiking ways. There is a lake called Presseger lake nearby, where people can swim in the summer.

Bad Kleinkirchheim's
Average height is 1,087 meters above sea level and covers 74.01 square kilometers. It lies between Millstätter See and the Gurk valley. It is surrounded by several mountains, for it is located in a valley. 35% of the surface is alpine grassland, 28% forest, approximately 9.6% meadows and fields as well as 1.3% pastures; only 0.1% are small brooks and moorland surfaces.

Heiligenblut (Holy Blood)
A municipality in the district of Spittal an der Drau in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Situated in the high-Alpine region of the Hohe Tauern mountain range at 1,288 meters, Heiligenblut is located at the foot of the Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria, and the Pasterze Glacier. It is also the southern starting point of the scenic Grossglockner Hochalpenstraße to Bruck in Salzburg, the continuation of the highway B107 from Lienz in East Tyrol. The municipality of Heiligenblut includes the Katastralgemeinden of Apriach, Hof, Rojach and Zlapp.

Heiligenblut nowadays chiefly is a tourism and mountaineering resort. Nearby attractions include the Heiligenblut-Roßbach-Schareck cable car (2,606 m), an open-air museum, the Stockmühlen mills in Apriach with nine flume mills, Lake Kachelsee to the west, the Möll waterfalls, the Gößnitz waterfalls, the Leiter waterfalls, the Margaritzen reservoir, and Lake Sandersee.

Grossglockner
A 3,798 m above sea level, Austria's highest mountain and the highest mountain in the Alps east of the Brenner Pass. This makes it, after Mont Blanc, the second most prominent mountain in the Alps, when measured by relative height; see the list of Alpine peaks by prominence.

The Grossglockner lies on the border between Carinthia and the East Tyrol; it is the highest peak in the Glockner group, a group of mountains along the main ridge of the Hohe Tauern. The summit itself lies on the Glockner ridge, which branches to the south off the main ridge. The Pasterze, Austria's biggest glacier, lies at the Grossglockner's foot.

The characteristically pyramid-shaped peak actually consists of two pinnacles, the Großglockner and the Kleinglockner (3,700 m; klein means "small" in German), separated by a saddle-like formation known as the Glocknerscharte.

Stift Sankt Paul

Gurk Cathedral

Hochosterwitz Castle

Lake Ossiach

Lake Faak

Lake Millstatt

Nassfeld

Bad Kleinkirchheim's

Heiligenblut

Grossglockner

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